Looks interesting. Can i assume this is for just the PC? or will this make it to the XBOX 1 and PS4?

As I imagine it will be based on the Civ V engine I suspect it is highly likely it will appear on a console.

For my part (apologies to the console gamers) I think it is sad when they "dumb down" strategy games to fit the limited controllers of consoles. The new X-Com game was a shadow of the old ones. I miss unit stacking in Civilization, and I've steered clear of the new Sim City. This is only a small sub portion of what I miss. Give me stats and micromanagement and not an arcade game when you could make a simulator.

I'm not against giving console games the pleasure of enjoying strategy games. I just miss the games I loved in my youth and saddened by seeing them stripped down to nothing. The games are not bad games they are just not what they used to be anymore.

People wondering about the fog of war thing, it's could be explained by Col. Santiago in Alpha Centauri:

"I have often been asked: if we have traveled between the stars, why can we not launch the simplest of orbital probes? These fools fail to understand the difficulty of finding the appropriate materials on this Planet, of developing adequate power supplies, and creating the infrastructure necessary to support such an effort. In short, we have struggled under the limitations of a colonial society on a virgin planet."

We read the greats: Asimov, Heinlein, Orson Scott Card. Dan Simmons is a big influence, the Hyperion Cantos, we kind of lifted the idea of 'The Great Mistake' from that—that's an homage to him.

Oh, it's great stuff, great stuff. /Morgan ;-)

These are indeed opera magna, the Hyperion Cantos and the Ender series are beautiful work of art… maybe I should bridge the wait reading them again? The TechnoCore in the Hyperion Cantos is among the best AI models I know of in Sci-Fi-literature - the Hyperion cantos is old, 20 years or so. Very impressive…

Looks interesting. Can i assume this is for just the PC? or will this make it to the XBOX 1 and PS4?

As I imagine it will be based on the Civ V engine I suspect it is highly likely it will appear on a console.

For my part (apologies to the console gamers) I think it is sad when they "dumb down" strategy games to fit the limited controllers of consoles. The new X-Com game was a shadow of the old ones. I miss unit stacking in Civilization, and I've steered clear of the new Sim City. This is only a small sub portion of what I miss. Give me stats and micromanagement and not an arcade game when you could make a simulator.

I'm not against giving console games the pleasure of enjoying strategy games. I just miss the games I loved in my youth and saddened by seeing them stripped down to nothing. The games are not bad games they are just not what they used to be anymore.

I'm going to need to explain to my wife why I'm saving all my vacation days. And then why we are taking a "staycation". And then why our "staycation" involves me being locked in my office and not talking to her.

I find it amusing how there's fog of war when the humans have managed interstellar travel.

You laugh, but fog of war is an important game mechanic that's really useful at generating a sense of discovery and lack of control. It's supposed to be a foreign and dangerous world that you slowly learn to conquer.

Consider it from a lore perspective:

The interstellar ships were launched in a hurry, people need to get off the planet and you cant wait for future techs to make interstellar travel any safer or more efficient than it already is. Perhaps, to survive re-entry and optimize the amount of people you can bring, there just isn't the space to bring detachable modules (satellites). Worse, when you land you find the environment inhospitable and you can either focus your few resources on building a safer living environment, or getting your industry off the ground in order to manufacture a satellite launch system.

Looks interesting. Can i assume this is for just the PC? or will this make it to the XBOX 1 and PS4?

As I imagine it will be based on the Civ V engine I suspect it is highly likely it will appear on a console.

For my part (apologies to the console gamers) I think it is sad when they "dumb down" strategy games to fit the limited controllers of consoles. The new X-Com game was a shadow of the old ones. I miss unit stacking in Civilization, and I've steered clear of the new Sim City. This is only a small sub portion of what I miss. Give me stats and micromanagement and not an arcade game when you could make a simulator.

I'm not against giving console games the pleasure of enjoying strategy games. I just miss the games I loved in my youth and saddened by seeing them stripped down to nothing. The games are not bad games they are just not what they used to be anymore.

Sorry if I offended anyone.

I don't believe Civ V was ever released for any console.

Thanks for update. I believe Civ V would work great on a console. The fact (if as you say) that it wasn't released on console wasn't for lack of trying at least. Can't claim I followed the news about it to closely, but remember that they had plans for an console release.

I find it amusing how there's fog of war when the humans have managed interstellar travel.

You laugh, but fog of war is an important game mechanic that's really useful at generating a sense of discovery and lack of control. It's supposed to be a foreign and dangerous world that you slowly learn to conquer.

Consider it from a lore perspective:

The interstellar ships were launched in a hurry, people need to get off the planet and you cant wait for future techs to make interstellar travel any safer or more efficient than it already is. Perhaps, to survive re-entry and optimize the amount of people you can bring, there just isn't the space to bring detachable modules (satellites). Worse, when you land you find the environment inhospitable and you can either focus your few resources on building a safer living environment, or getting your industry off the ground in order to manufacture a satellite launch system.

And they couldn't pack a few drones for reconnaissance? Or some binoculars?

I understand the need for Fog of War but the fact that this takes place in the far future makes it seem odd that these people can only see as far as their Stone Age ancestors could when the world was new.

Maybe the planet is larger! But with a lower density which is explained by that thing you can mine that counters gravity (<- actually a thing)!

I find it amusing how there's fog of war when the humans have managed interstellar travel.

You laugh, but fog of war is an important game mechanic that's really useful at generating a sense of discovery and lack of control. It's supposed to be a foreign and dangerous world that you slowly learn to conquer.

Consider it from a lore perspective:

The interstellar ships were launched in a hurry, people need to get off the planet and you cant wait for future techs to make interstellar travel any safer or more efficient than it already is. Perhaps, to survive re-entry and optimize the amount of people you can bring, there just isn't the space to bring detachable modules (satellites). Worse, when you land you find the environment inhospitable and you can either focus your few resources on building a safer living environment, or getting your industry off the ground in order to manufacture a satellite launch system.

Yeah, the early SMAC tech tree was all about basic infrastructure, societal changes and figuring out the world around you. You needed to work through quite a few techs to get basic boats - aircraft (and spaceflight) came quite a bit later still.

Besides the eXplore part of a 4X game gets knocked on the head a bit without some kind of fog of war mechanism.

Fog of war could be adopted in different ways to adapt to the tech in the story. The best way would be to have a map of the planet at start, thanks to the probes and surveying satellites. However, this map doesn't tell you where the other factions have settled, what improvements they made, or where the next alien infestation lives. It has a rough idea where certain resources are but the exact locations are dependent upon on-the-ground exploration.

So it gives you goals and adds some early tension. A mountainous ridge has possible unobtanium deposits but it's a long ways away. So you push hard to colonize in that direction. Unfortunately, the Hive had the same information and Chairman Yang's forces come to secure the area for themselves.

Looks interesting. Can i assume this is for just the PC? or will this make it to the XBOX 1 and PS4?

PC, Mac and Linux have been announced. No word either way on consoles yet.

Probably not a bad thing, either. Civilization: Revolution was the last console version to be released (I Think?) and it came across as a watered down predecessor to #V. I believe Firaxis recognized this as well and stated they will not make games for console anymore.

I don't understand why, when the recent consoles have processing architectures so similar to those of PCs, they wouldn't just port the game instead of making a new one. For someone like me that doesn't have enough money to throw down on building a badass gaming box, a console release would be perfect.

With all that said, DO WANT.

If you have a desktop, just put in a $80 graphic card, and you´re good to go with pretty much whatever you have, if it's newer than 6-7 years old or so.. If not, you can still get a box with similar specs to at least the xbox for a similar price.. add in a few steam sales and humble bundles and you´re saving money. You don't need a $1000 alienware rig to do pc gaming.

edit: considering the relatively low specs for the next gen consoles, this will probably hold true for quite a few more years aswell.

Looks interesting. Can i assume this is for just the PC? or will this make it to the XBOX 1 and PS4?

As I imagine it will be based on the Civ V engine I suspect it is highly likely it will appear on a console.

For my part (apologies to the console gamers) I think it is sad when they "dumb down" strategy games to fit the limited controllers of consoles. The new X-Com game was a shadow of the old ones. I miss unit stacking in Civilization, and I've steered clear of the new Sim City. This is only a small sub portion of what I miss. Give me stats and micromanagement and not an arcade game when you could make a simulator.

I'm not against giving console games the pleasure of enjoying strategy games. I just miss the games I loved in my youth and saddened by seeing them stripped down to nothing. The games are not bad games they are just not what they used to be anymore.

Sorry if I offended anyone.

As long as they don't dumb down the PC version, there is no reason to care if they dumb down the console version. To each their own.

Looks interesting. Can i assume this is for just the PC? or will this make it to the XBOX 1 and PS4?

As I imagine it will be based on the Civ V engine I suspect it is highly likely it will appear on a console.

For my part (apologies to the console gamers) I think it is sad when they "dumb down" strategy games to fit the limited controllers of consoles. The new X-Com game was a shadow of the old ones. I miss unit stacking in Civilization, and I've steered clear of the new Sim City. This is only a small sub portion of what I miss. Give me stats and micromanagement and not an arcade game when you could make a simulator.

I'm not against giving console games the pleasure of enjoying strategy games. I just miss the games I loved in my youth and saddened by seeing them stripped down to nothing. The games are not bad games they are just not what they used to be anymore.

Sorry if I offended anyone.

You are against dumbing down games... and then say you miss unit stacking in Civ? One unit per tile was the single best change combat has ever seen in that series!

Looks interesting. Can i assume this is for just the PC? or will this make it to the XBOX 1 and PS4?

As I imagine it will be based on the Civ V engine I suspect it is highly likely it will appear on a console.

For my part (apologies to the console gamers) I think it is sad when they "dumb down" strategy games to fit the limited controllers of consoles. The new X-Com game was a shadow of the old ones. I miss unit stacking in Civilization, and I've steered clear of the new Sim City. This is only a small sub portion of what I miss. Give me stats and micromanagement and not an arcade game when you could make a simulator.

I'm not against giving console games the pleasure of enjoying strategy games. I just miss the games I loved in my youth and saddened by seeing them stripped down to nothing. The games are not bad games they are just not what they used to be anymore.

Sorry if I offended anyone.

I couldn't agree less. The X-Com reboot is a great example of trimming down unessential and time-consuming features (like movement points or multiple bases) and adding new ones (RPG-like soldier classes and abilities) while staying faithful to the game story and mechanics that worked so well.

As for micromanagement, the trend is to keep it to a minimum so you can focus in the larger picture.

Fog of war could be adopted in different ways to adapt to the tech in the story. The best way would be to have a map of the planet at start, thanks to the probes and surveying satellites. However, this map doesn't tell you where the other factions have settled, what improvements they made, or where the next alien infestation lives. It has a rough idea where certain resources are but the exact locations are dependent upon on-the-ground exploration.

So it gives you goals and adds some early tension. A mountainous ridge has possible unobtanium deposits but it's a long ways away. So you push hard to colonize in that direction. Unfortunately, the Hive had the same information and Chairman Yang's forces come to secure the area for themselves.

Personally I'd rather keep fog of war. Adapting your gameplan to take advantage of the resources you find and figuring out how to manage without the ones you don't find, introduces important unpredictability in the early stages of the game, that can often have a large impact on how the rest of the game plays out. Obviously there's also joy in exploration and finding those "perfect spots" for new settlements.

Either way, as a fan of both Asimov and Simmons, I'm now even more excited about this... and I was pretty damn excited to begin with.

I'm going to need to explain to my wife why I'm saving all my vacation days. And then why we are taking a "staycation". And then why our "staycation" involves me being locked in my office and not talking to her.

Fog of war could be adopted in different ways to adapt to the tech in the story. The best way would be to have a map of the planet at start, thanks to the probes and surveying satellites. However, this map doesn't tell you where the other factions have settled, what improvements they made, or where the next alien infestation lives. It has a rough idea where certain resources are but the exact locations are dependent upon on-the-ground exploration.

So it gives you goals and adds some early tension. A mountainous ridge has possible unobtanium deposits but it's a long ways away. So you push hard to colonize in that direction. Unfortunately, the Hive had the same information and Chairman Yang's forces come to secure the area for themselves.

Personally I'd rather keep fog of war. Adapting your gameplan to take advantage of the resources you find and figuring out how to manage without the ones you don't find, introduces important unpredictability in the early stages of the game, that can often have a large impact on how the rest of the game plays out. Obviously there's also joy in exploration and finding those "perfect spots" for new settlements.

Either way, as a fan of both Asimov and Simmons, I'm now even more excited about this... and I was pretty damn excited to begin with.

I'm going to need to explain to my wife why I'm saving all my vacation days. And then why we are taking a "staycation". And then why our "staycation" involves me being locked in my office and not talking to her.

...I'm sure she'll understand.

Hopefully you have a comfy couch to sleep on too.

Sleep? Who needs that when there are planets that need conquering?

True enough. What WAS I thinking? Shame on me! Please don't kick me out of the Civ club! I was weak, I admit it!!

I wonder what the system requirements will be... I desperately need a new laptop (and can't justifying getting a desktop as well) maybe I should put off purchasing a laptop till this game comes out... I remember the later civ games requiring some serious horsepower late in the game.

Looks interesting. Can i assume this is for just the PC? or will this make it to the XBOX 1 and PS4?

PC, Mac and Linux have been announced. No word either way on consoles yet.

Probably not a bad thing, either. Civilization: Revolution was the last console version to be released (I Think?) and it came across as a watered down predecessor to #V. I believe Firaxis recognized this as well and stated they will not make games for console anymore.

I don't understand why, when the recent consoles have processing architectures so similar to those of PCs, they wouldn't just port the game instead of making a new one. For someone like me that doesn't have enough money to throw down on building a badass gaming box, a console release would be perfect.

With all that said, DO WANT.

If you have a desktop, just put in a $80 graphic card, and you´re good to go with pretty much whatever you have, if it's newer than 6-7 years old or so.. If not, you can still get a box with similar specs to at least the xbox for a similar price.. add in a few steam sales and humble bundles and you´re saving money. You don't need a $1000 alienware rig to do pc gaming.

edit: considering the relatively low specs for the next gen consoles, this will probably hold true for quite a few more years aswell.

That's really where the problem lies; I have a desktop, but it's OLD. I mean, the fastest card slot on the motherboard is AGP, not PCIe. To run anything competently, I pretty much need an entirely new machine. And since that's the case, I'd honestly rather hold out until I can put together something that's going to last a good, long while. If I buy something that just plays games that are already out kind of well, then when newer games start to come out, I might not be able to run them at all, and I'll be right back where I started.

[quote="Probably not a bad thing, either. Civilization: Revolution was the last console version to be released (I Think?) and it came across as a watered down predecessor to #V. I believe Firaxis recognized this as well and stated they will not make games for console anymore.

I don't understand why, when the recent consoles have processing architectures so similar to those of PCs, they wouldn't just port the game instead of making a new one. For someone like me that doesn't have enough money to throw down on building a badass gaming box, a console release would be perfect.

With all that said, DO WANT.[/quote]

If you have a desktop, just put in a $80 graphic card, and you´re good to go with pretty much whatever you have, if it's newer than 6-7 years old or so.. If not, you can still get a box with similar specs to at least the xbox for a similar price.. add in a few steam sales and humble bundles and you´re saving money. You don't need a $1000 alienware rig to do pc gaming.

edit: considering the relatively low specs for the next gen consoles, this will probably hold true for quite a few more years aswell.[/quote]

That's really where the problem lies; I have a desktop, but it's OLD. I mean, the fastest card slot on the motherboard is AGP, not PCIe. To run anything competently, I pretty much need an entirely new machine. And since that's the case, I'd honestly rather hold out until I can put together something that's going to last a good, long while. If I buy something that just plays games that are already out kind of well, then when newer games start to come out, I might not be able to run them at all, and I'll be right back where I started.[/quote]

I'd think a $500 ish machine would be good enough and last 3 years or so. Then you could always upgrade the video card if necessary and they are reasonably priced.